It's Broccoli Week

We've been eating very well this week - there's been a distinct broccoli flavour to everything: Paella with broccoli, courgettes and whole young broad beans; Broccoli Romanesco dhal; Pasta with courgette and broccoli bolognese; Broccoli and broad bean risotto. Only today we're having a day off from broccoli with starters of beetroot salad and steamed chard with hard-boiled eggs, followed by a large plate of new Epicure potatoes with butter, salt and peeper.

All the main heads of broccoli are gone. Now waiting for the secondary growth

Our first Broccoli Romanesco

This was the week that we discovered that chickens like raspberries. On the job list for next week: putting chicken wire around the raspberries. Luckily the strawberries are netted off and outside the hens' roaming range. The Symphony strawberries especially are delicious.

Inside, one of the cantaloupe melons had its first male flower. I've taken out the growing tips to encourage lateral growth, but it looks like I'll have to hand pollinate, just like with the indoor cucumbers.

The cantaloupe melons

The cats had been using the salad pond as a giant litter box so we've had to improve the netting and re-sow the next lot of lettuces. But since they are doing such an excellent job at vole control we can't really be angry.

Our most advanced pumpkin

The parsnip and chard bed

The de-leafed celeriac is starting to bulk up

 One of the Brussels sprouts is making a getaway

In the spring we had rescued a lot of frog spawn from a puddle on the road and deposited it in our wildlife pond. Now the next generation of pest control is leaping about the garden. Go, amphibians!

Little froggers everywhere